For the last several years Netflix has been quietly banking episodes of a new show called Famous Last Words, interviews with famous people entering their twilight years. The catch is that episodes will only air after the subject passes away. The full list of interviewees is a closely guarded secret, but last week Netflix quietly posted the premiere episode featuring Jane Goodall.
The show is an adaptation of the Danish television series Det Sidste Ord (The Last Word). In the Netflix version Brad Falchuk, best known as the co-creator of American Horror Story and Glee, conducts interviews on an empty soundstage with remotely operated cameras. In this intimate setting Falchuk often frames his questions in the past tense and he reminds subjects that “they are dead.”
If Goodall’s episode is any indicator, we can expect future episodes to include candid opinions from famous people no longer worried about potential public backlash. Goodall was never particular shy about speaking her mind, but she minces no words in what appears to be her final interview:
“Absolutely there are people I don’t like, and I would like to put them on one of Musk’s spaceships and send them all off to the planet he’s sure he’s going to discover … He’d be the host … Along with Musk would be Trump … And then I would put Putin in there. And I would put President Xi. I’d certainly put Netanyahu in there, and his far-right government. Put them all on that spaceship and send them off.” – Jane Goodall